Hey everybody I'm back!

A rather quick update and a lengthier chapter, but not much plot development, so not the most thrilling one. The next chapter will probably take much longer, but let's see how it goes.

Anyways, I don't have much more to say, so enjoy!


After their lucky, and yet fateful encounter, the two Spix's flew across Rio for the remaining day. Blu couldn't stop talking, words just kept popping up in his head and pouring out his beak as he told Jewel every oh-so-tiny detail of his past weeks, and the same was true for Jewel. Still, she didn't exactly have the most thrilling three weeks lying behind her, hence she ran out of narrative material rather quickly, and elegantly transitioned to eagerly teaching Blu about Rio's environment and the landmarks that might become handy for navigation.

As the exciting and thus energy-sapping day neared its end, the two azure macaws soared just over the Southern Atlantic, along the south side of Sugarloaf Mountain, heading towards Christ the Redeemer.

The milky peach aura of sunset began to take shape in front of them, the sun's remaining rays were mostly blocked by Rio's mountainous scenery. The few beams that managed to penetrate the jungle-accented landscape were scattered in the wavy water and reflecting onto them, thus offsetting the chilly sea breeze.

Blu had already explored the majority of the region in the past weeks, but he didn't dare interrupt Jewel's river of words, because it made him indescribably contented to see her overflown with pure joy. He certainly would have spent the rest of his life, flying through the sunset with Jewel, just listening to her soft voice and watching her gorgeous feathers dance in the warm air. But reality called, and the day was coming to an end.

Out of the blue, Jewel tackled a steep climb towards Mount Corcovado, on which Christ the Redeemer is located, Blu accepted the challenge with pleasure.

She accelerated more and more, but Blu hung behind, panting from exertion and flapping his wings extensively.

Jewel arrived at the top, and with her stamina seemingly untouched, softly landed on the right arm of the statue. Blu eventually also reached the top and pretty much crash landed next to her. He fell over on his back, gasping for air.

"That... wasn't fair... I'm simply... not build... for this weather." he gasped.

Jewel chuckled and utilized her wing to fan fresh air at his overstrained body.

"I mean, you were able to make it up here, that's quite impressive for an ostrich." she joked.

"I guess I've been evolving supernaturally fast lately." he responded with one of his signature smiles carved into his beak.

Jewel giggled in response. After Blu regained some of his stamina, they began sailing through the air for a bit more.

The by the atmosphere reddish-rendered sun was almost completely sunken into the horizon and the jungle got busy preparing for the night.

A short yawn escaped Jewel's beak not much later. Blu was still quite worried about Jewel's health, due to her wing injury; it still needed time to completely heal and he figured that sleep would make for the best catalyst. He didn't want her to think that she was the spoilsport though.

"Jewel are you tired? I-I mean, it's not that I think that you're tired, It's just that I-I'm tired so I-"

She interrupted with a soft chuckle. "Sweet of you to look after me, and yes, I suggest we search for a place to sleep."

Blu was surprised that she saw trough him so quickly, she is pretty intelligent after all.

"Affirmative, I'll keep my eyes open." he consented relieved.

They headed west of Christ the Redeemer, towards the Tijuca Forest and after a few more minutes of flight, they arrived in the heart of the jungle.

The sun had completed its daily ritual by now and rested underneath the horizon. Only a faint, reddish dusk remained, thus making it difficult to spot any potential sleeping places.

"J-Jewel, u-umm... the Jungle will be pitch black soon, we still could go and sleep in the conservation center?" Blu suggested with a rising tone, but he already had a clue as to her answer.

"Aw, come on Blu, I've been there for long enough. A little more patience please, I'm sure we'll find something soon." she replied in a tender-yet-strict tone.

"Hmph, well... okay." he eventually agreed reluctantly.

They penetrated deeper and deeper into the jungle, and for every second flown, Blu's disorientation grew, aggravated by the spreading darkness.

"How about down there?" Jewel proposed out of nowhere.

Blu couldn't quite recognize what she meant, but he nodded anyways, because he definitely didn't want to dive even deeper into the jungle.

"I told you that we'd find something.", she teased, "So... let's take a closer look, shall we?"

"S-Sure, um... take the lead." Blu answered skeptically, still unconvinced about him sleeping in the jungle.

Jewel descended and touched down on a branch of one of the various trees. Blu landed next to her a bit later. It was a cannonball tree with a hollow big enough for both birds, and it offered a perfect view over the majority of Rio, including its stunning landmarks.

A small opening in the tree lead to its hollow inside. Jewel slipped in and looked around briefly.

"Everything clear, plenty of room in here." she exclaimed from the inside.

She turned and peaked out of the opening.

"...and no spiders." she teased, a heartwarming smile accenting her beak, Blu couldn't help but flash her a sheepish smirk in response.

"Areee you coming Blu?" she continued playfully.

Blu was still perched on the branch in front of the opening, throwing an anxious stare at Jewel.

"A-Are you sure that it's save out here?" He asked doubtfully, while scanning the area frequently and trembling slightly.

"What do you mean by that? Where do you want to go?" Jewel asked confused.

"U-Um to be honest... I was spending most of my nights in Linda's apartment. I... I just didn't want to sleep completely alone." Blu confessed.

At first, a grin was about to form on Jewel's beak, and she was clearly suppressing the laughter building up in her. But after a moment of silence, the grin faded into nothingness and she glanced into the by now dark sky.

After a long time of no response, her gaze changed to a more serious, almost painful stare. She remained staring in the in the air for an eternity. Blu came closer to the opening and reached for her right wing.

"J-Jewel… are you okay?" he asked in concern.

Jewel freed herself from her trance-like state and lowered her gaze to his hazel irises.

"Blu... I really know how you feel, trust me. I... I really do. But you will never have to sleep alone from now on, deal?" she continued soothingly.

A small smile formed on his beak. "Deal."

He slowly waddled into the hollow, and just to make sure, scanned it for spiders, because in that regard, he couldn't really trust Jewel.

After thoroughly clearing the area, he lay down next to Jewel, who already did so in the meantime. There was still a bit of space between their sides, which a certain someone couldn't seem to tolerate.

"Come on Blu, I won't bite."

"W-What do you mean?" he stuttered.

Jewel moved her head towards the gap between them, giving him a clue.

It wasn't that he didn't understand what she meant, so he slowly moved in her direction, but directed his gaze away from her because he was somehow extremely nervous. His system overflew with an uneasy feeling as he approached her, the most beautiful bird he'd ever seen.

Eventually their sides met, causing Blu's every feather to noticeably puff up. Jewel giggled quietly as this happened, Blu could literally sense her amusement.

He didn't dare take a glimpse towards her for a long time, and just as his nervousness started to settle, Jewel lifted her left wing and laid it over him. Blu instantly felt her body heat being transferred onto him, making him feel even more uneasy, yet at the same, time it felt amazing. Jewel's sweet scent floated down her wing, slowly finding its way to his beak. Her tropical aroma intoxicated his senses and helped calm him down a bit.

He let out a short sigh in pleasure and took a glance at Jewel. He caught her observing him with a pleased smile on her beak and her eyes now half closed.

It reminded himself of the day they first met. The clumsy, domesticated and anxious being he was, and to the day, still is, just wanted to go home to his cage, where everything was familiar.

Jewel was, and to the day still is, free-spirited and gifted with the strong character of hers, and at the time, just wanted to live life to its fullest, free and with no sight of responsibilities. Two opposite plans and two opposite characters, but opposites attract. Jewel began to accept him more and more as time passed; he didn't have a clue as to why at the time.

He wondered what would've happened if they never got kidnapped. If Linda would've seen the recordings of Jewel attacking him, or the constitution he was in the next morning, she would have grabbed him and left Brazil in a blink of an eye. He would've been back in Minnesota, drinking hot chocolate and reading books all day, slowly withering away until death claimed him, without ever being granted with the one-and-only experience to fly, and even worse, the titillating sensation of love, supercharging his entire system, would've never been able to claim his body.

It was insane now that he thought of it, and the sobering, excruciating fact was, that all of this would've happened one way or another, if it wasn't for fate intervening and playing its magic to bring them together in the most unconventional way.

And now, even though they didn't see themselves for over a month, Jewel trusted him more than ever. Blu couldn't really grasp why Jewel was suddenly so attracted to him, but he couldn't complain either – he was infinitely grateful that everything had played out as it had.

Jewels feathers were warming Blu, gifting him a warm feeling of comfort. The cool moonlight granted a magical view over Rio; it was a perfect moment, without a doubt.

Jewel was oddly quiet for the last minutes, so he turned, in order to check if she fell asleep.

But what he saw wasn't precious sleep, but rather the opposite. Jewel was staring holes into the dark sky again, with the same pained expression as before, flooding her face.

"Jewel... what's wrong? What's on your mind?" he asked compassionate.

It took her what felt like a millennium to answer.

"It's just... never mind. It doesn't matter right now.", she paused for a few seconds and turned her gaze onto Blu as she started speaking again.

"But what does matter is, that your appearance in my life changed... everything, Blu. I've been alone... for such an agonizing big part of my life... and now you are here. Thank you for that." liquid started to collect in her eyes, she was clearly holding back her tears.

Blu couldn't stand to see Jewel suffer like this. Just as she did it before, he raised his wing and laid it over Jewel. His warm coat protecting her and donating warmth to her body helped her calm down. Blu turned his head to his right and gazed into her turquoise irises.

"Jewel, please... don't cry. I... can't imagine how hard it was for you, but what I can guarantee you is that you never have to be alone again, I will always be next to you. O-Of course if that's w-what you want." he added awkwardly.

Jewel was still crying a bit, but Blu's awkward finish made her giggle slightly.

"Blu, why wouldn't I want to be together with the most extraordinary bird ever?", she answered chuckling, "I never want to be without you again."

"T-That's... good to hear." Blu replied relieved.

His comforting words, and his warming wing enveloping Jewel, reflecting her body heat back onto her, showed effect. Jewel eyes stopped leaking liquid, only a faint glaze remained.

And after a moment of them both gazing into the night, at the stupendous view of the in darkness plunged city donating them some of its yellowish-golden luminescence by radiating it into the vast vegetation, Jewel turned her head 90 degrees and pecked Blu onto his right cheek. She softly whispered, "Thank you Blu, for everything. You're one amazing bird."

"Look who's talking." Blu flattered.

Jewel gave him a heartwarming smile in response and snuggled closer to him.

Satisfaction claimed his mind as the afterglow of her peck warmed his cheek, he would've accepted dozens more of them, but when he noticed her pale face, he thought it best to not keep her awake any longer.

"Jewel you should get some sleep, your wing is still not completely healed and your blood pressure seems to be a little low."

"Umm... okay? I guess that's a good idea then." she responded, a faint trace of confusion in her voice.

"Good night, Blu."

"Good night, Jewel."

It was a relatively cold night and the wind speed had increased since the sun disappeared. However, Blu's sheltering wing provided Jewel with a pleasant warmth, in sympathy, her body donated his wing some of hers.

Melatonin started to flood their systems, and Jewel's response was to bury her beak and half her face deeply into Blu's warm chest feathers, which irritated him a bit, but he didn't protest further because he didn't want to prevent her from slipping into invaluable realm of sleep. And actually, it didn't feel bad at all.

After listening to the relaxing, yet for him, a bit uncanny nocturnal jungle sounds for a few minutes, Blu glanced at his chest and was granted with an utterly adorable sight. Jewel fell asleep with her head still resting on his chest, an innocent smile carved into her beak, which was halfway covered by his chest plumage. He turned completely silent, in order to not disturb her and continued to observe her for a bit.

His regressed instincts managed to break the barrier that his mind had erected in all the years of domesticity in order to shield itself from them. They commanded him to protect Jewel and since he was in the potentially dangerous jungle, he tried to fight tiredness that was increasingly building inside him. He stared at the outside for a good amount of time, but nothing changed in the jungle.

After a lot more time passed, and Blu still couldn't identify any potential threat, his tiredness gained the upper hand. He figured that it should be at least somewhat safe to sleep for the rest of the night. He was still quite concerned, but a slight motion of Jewel's beak reminded him that he wasn't alone.

He closed his eyes, and with the help of Jewel's presence, slowly drifted off into the land of dreams.

The Next Day

A powerful gust of wind shook the tree, and consequently, Blu, while still emerged in his dreams. And unfortunately, the earthquake-like event lead to the end of them.

His eyes shot open and feathers all over his body rose while he checked over his surroundings in deep confusion. He still was in the hollow cannonball tree and everything was just as before he fell asleep, except one thing; Jewel was nowhere to be found, her sleeping spot abandoned.

In an already half-panic, he glanced outside the hollow's opening, and to his relieve, spotted her on the branch next to the opening. She was carefully preening her left, and injured, wing and she must have woken up much earlier than him since the rest of her plumage was already cleansed and glimmering in the faint sunlight.

Blu no longer wondered how the wind was able to shake the tree to this extend, because as he glanced outside, he saw that this day wasn't as flawless as yesterday, at least judging by the weather.

It happened to be an overcast day, with beams of weakened yellow radiance occasionally breaking through. Really unsettling, however, were the enormously gigantic, dense towers of dark clouds, approaching the city. They were still far away, hovering over the Atlantic, but the wind was accelerating them rapidly.

He redirected his gaze to Jewel, just as she finished off her preening by rearranging her chest feathers and turned towards the hollow. Her eyes met his, causing her to throw a warm smile at the half-asleep bird that was him. He used his wing to push himself from the ground and noticed that his muscles ached a lot. He concluded that this was one of the side effects of flying with the most enduring macaw of the world, also known as Jewel, for an entire day; The fact that fell he asleep late didn't help either.

After another try, he managed to get up and stepped outside of the hollow.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." Jewel said and reached Blu her wing, helping him climb the branch.

"Good morning, Jewel. U-umm... for how long exactly have I been sleeping?" he asked, already half in regret.

"Oh, don't worry Blu. I woke up just a few minutes ago, but without the help of the wind, you probably would've slept through the day." she chuckled.

"I mean, I could have borne a little more sleep." he moaned with his eyes still half closed.

"Well, now that you're awake, could you help me finish off my preening?"

"W-What?" Blu asked confused, oblivious to what she meant.

"Um... could you help me preen my head?" she clarified, remarking the obviousness of her request.

"W-...W-What? You want m-...me to p-preen your head? W-with my b-beak?" Blu stuttered, with an uneasy expression flooding his face.

"Y-yeah? Please?" Jewel repeated, now a bit confused herself.

"B-But I don't know how to do that." he confessed a bit embarrassed, because she was clearly taking it for granted.

"Wait, what? Did you never ever preen yourself?" Jewel asked perplexed.

"U-umm... n-not really, no."

"Well, that explains a lot." she stated, pointing at Blu's chest on which his feathers were out of place.

"B-But that isn't my fault." Blu answered, pointing on Jewel's beak.

A sheepish grin formed on her beak. "Y-You have a point."

"But could you a least try to? A least a tiny bit?" Jewel pleaded, "I didn't have someone around to help me with that in a long time and it's perfectly natural to preen each other."

"Okay... I guess it couldn't hurt.", he said grudgingly "Not me, to be precise." he muttered chuckling.

"I heard that!" Jewel exclaimed, but nevertheless, she moved closer to him and closed her eyes.

Blu interpreted this as a starting sign. He started with her nape, and carefully clenched a few of its feathers in his beak, letting them slowly glide through it as he moved his head away. It worked surprisingly well and he could clearly see the effect it had on the feather's contrast.

He finished the neck area after a few more approaches, then moved to her upper head. After it was finished, only her face was left.

He neared his beak and carefully began preening along her eyes, which made him super nervous because he didn't want to accidentally hurt her. But she seemed to enjoy it, due to the fact that her eyes were closed and she didn't flinch at all, nor did any sound escaped her beak.

"Done." Blu exclaimed proudly after her every feather was as good as new.

"Wow Blu, you did an excellent job, I feel much better now, thank you."

"No problem, Jewel, you look great."

"I'm pretty sure I owe you a favor." Jewel responded playfully, and before Blu could react, moved her beak towards him and began preening his face.

He closed his eyes reflexively and backed away a bit, "O-Oh J-Jewel, you don't h-have to... preen me." he screeched.

Jewel didn't listen and continued.

"Don't move Blu, your feathers are so sticky, let me help."

He obeyed her and stopped moving. Jewel proceeded to eagerly cleaned his head and face. It tickled a lot, but transitioned to feeling much better as she moved to his head and nape.

After a few minutes she moved back and glanced at him.

"There you go, much better."

"Oh… it indeed feels much better." Blu agreed astonished.

"And looks much better." Jewel added, Blu struggled to not blush underneath his feathers.

A loud growl interrupted them, Blu was relieved that the source wasn't his stomach, and surprise that it directed from Jewel's.

"Cheese and sprinkles, Jewel, sounds like preening makes hungry too." Blu chuckled.

"Oops... uhh... heh, I umm... completely forgot about breakfast." she said with a sheepish grin on her beak.

"I'm hungry too, let's go get something." Blu suggested, an amused smile lay wide on his beak.

"Alright, but we need to get going, we're running late." Jewel said and pointed at the sun, which was still covered by a thick layer of clouds, but he could see that it was almost at its highest point.

Jewel jumped off the branch and rose into the air.

"Hurry up, Blu."

He took off, his muscles again aging a lot, and followed her.

Blu followed Jewel who flew west, traveling even deeper into the jungle. Fog idly floated along the trees, thus making it harder to spot food.

The temperature had dropped tremendously since yesterday, thus being very comforting, at least for a former Minnesota bird. Even though that helped, the shortcomings in sleep last night prevailed, and Blu had to concentrate to not crash into one of the giant trees.

He just hoped for some rain so he'd have an excuse for relaxing for the rest of the day. This wish wasn't even that far-fetched, given that these monstrous clouds were coming closer and closer, with every second passing.

While lost in thought, he noticed colorful, ovoid shaped fruits in the corner of his eye. He quickly turned, and an image of a gigantic tree sticking out of the fog coat got beamed onto his eyes. Multiple mangos were hanging towards the ground from its branches with their trademark color gradients, waiting to be consumed.

"Jewel, look at that!" he exclaimed.

Jewel turned and glanced at the tree.

"Whoa, now that's something."

They touched down on one of the tree's branches. The mangos were huge, thus they concluded that one should be enough for both of them. Jewel cut off one of them with a quick sweep of her beak, and they descended on a small rock. It was fairly high above the ground, so they didn't have to worry about any ground predators.

Jewel laid down the mango between them and started the 'breakfast', although it was already afternoon, with a generous bite.

"Mmm... it's... delicious." she told Blu between her chews, who couldn't wait for something to land in his stomach.

The sweet fragrance that its pale orange flesh emitted boosted his anticipation even more, and without waiting any longer, he deeply dug his beak into the mango and ripped off a huge part of it. His tongue almost went numb as the sweet-sour mango juice distributed in his mouth, and it caused him to close his eyes. He devoured the piece in seconds, and its fibrous texture filled up his stomach rapidly. The mangos he used to eat in Minnesota definitely didn't taste as good.

He went for another bite, and after a few minutes, they already consumed the whole mango, leaving nothing but its core.

Blu belched in satisfaction, causing Jewel to set up a disgusted expression for a moment, but it didn't seem to have bothered her further.

The high-sugar meal catalyzed his tiredness, making it hard to stand on his legs for any longer. He sat down on the edge of the rock and half-expanded his wing to the sides, pretty much like during the tram ride with Jewel, which still managed to traumatize him, given that he almost chocked on a petal.

The just assumed sat down next to him, in the same pose as he did. They let their gazes wander along the mist filled jungle for a while, giving their stomachs some time to digest.

The peaceful moment granted his brain some time to process the experiences gathered in the one and a half days spent with Jewel. Most of them were just as happy as the one right now, but one certain moment didn't want to escape his weary mind anymore.

He recalled the painful expression, that was carved into Jewel's face for a brief moment last night, and wondered what caused it. He also remembered that she didn't want to talk about it, but his curiosity prevailed.

He briefly glanced towards his right, Jewel was still focused on the jungle and admired its beauty with a signature smile on her beak.

"Um, Jewel?"

"Yeah?" she responded calmly.

"Last night, you had this... painful expression on your face, and I knew something was bothering you. You know that you can tell me anything, right?"

Jewel's smile faded quickly and it took a moment for her to respond.

"O-Oh... um... this was... unexpected." she stuttered. "Blu, there is nothing bothering me about my current life, especially since you are with me. I was just recalling... the past." she turned his gaze away from him and transferred it onto the grey sky. "You see, I haven't always lived in Rio, I used to live in the... amazon." she paused for a moment; Blu's face was filling with curiosity.

"Well, my flock and me didn't live deep in the rainforest, we rather lived close to its edge. The problem with that was, that humans were always close to us and they were the biggest threat. I can only remember fractions, but when I was about six months old, humans came into the jungle and... burned it down." she paused another time; a wave of fury swept over her face, but it vanished as quickly as it'd appeared. "I've never... seen anyone out of my flock again during my twelve years of life, including... my parents." she finished, her expression overflown with pain, she was clearly holding back a burst of tears.

Blu gazed into her sorrow-filled eyes and gently brushed his wing over her face, wiping the moisture off it. He didn't know what to say, and he wanted to clap himself for reminding her of the traumatic experience.

"J-Jewel... I'm sorry... it was obvious... that you didn't want to talk about it, but I asked you about it nevertheless. It was utterly stupid of me, because... I... I kind of know what you've been through."

Now Jewel's expression overflowed with curiosity, and she gazed into his eyes.

"The reason I never talked about my real parents and only about Linda is...", Blu paused for a moment as he tried to recall the only memory of the time before Linda found him, "...that I never saw them, at least I don't remember them."

He interrupted again, and rummaged deep in his earliest memories. "The earliest memory I have before it met Linda, is me, inside of a hollow tree and I know that my parents weren't there. I must've been very young, maybe only a few days. I remember that I woke up because some birds in the jungle were singing some song?", he paused as he noticed that he drifted off topic, "Uhh... whatever it must've been during carnival."

Jewel's gaze remained, Go on, she seemed to say.

But just as Blu wanted to, he realized how much of this day he'd repressed, as the memories of the singing birds and himself getting caught by poachers trickled out of his subconsciousness. The sudden enlightenment dumbfounded him, a lump formed in his throat.

"A-Are you okay?" Jewel asked, concern tinged her voice.

"I... I just recalled... that those birds... a-and I were captured by humans that day. I-I completely forgot about this."

It may have sounded traumatic, but the sheer lack of details he could remember prevented him from getting emotional; but Jewel didn't know that.

Her curious expression faded, a compassionate and simultaneously stunned one slowly replaced it.

"O-Oh... w-wow", she stammered. "Blu, I... don't know what to say, I wouldn't have thought that we had... such similar pasts."

"Me neither...", he mumbled quietly. "But as I said, I don't remember my parents at all, meaning it wasn't really tough for me, especially because I somehow ended up with Linda."

The memories of Linda taking him out of the cold box flashed through his mind, the images were much clearer, and he knew Linda would always have a place in his heart.

"B-But still, it was idiotic of me to interrogate you like that and... bringing up these memories. I-I'm sorry." Blu declared, guilt marked his expression.

"It's okay Blu, you couldn't have known. And I now know that you understand me, and this helps way more lot." she whispered reassuringly. "...aannd what you could do is getting us another one of these tasty mangos." she continued. "Like I said Blu, it's past and I had enough time to finish with it."

Blu was contended to see that her tough past apparently didn't affect her too much. "As you wish." he replied.

He lofted into the air and approached one of the several tropical fruits. He landed on a branch next to one of them and engaged chewing on its stalk.

It didn't work at all, and it reminded him attempting to open that damn Brazil nut yesterday. But this time it was way more embarrassing, since Jewel was watching him from beneath, and it was only a freaking mango. After multiple more attempts, Jewel took off from the rock and touched down on the same branch, next to him.

"So... how is it going?" she asked amused, a wide grin painting her beak.

"Eferytfhing gfoing like pflan." he answered, with his beak still clenched around the mango's stalk.

Nothing was going like plan, and he decently didn't want her to see how he failed to pick off a mango, so one last time, he pulled on the mango's stalk with all his strength. In fact, it did work, but also was a bit too powerful, causing him to fall over.

And as luck would have it, Jewel was standing directly behind him, resulting in Blu crashing into her. One thing led to another and she lost balance, and now wonder, they both fell off the branch and crashed into the ground with a dull thump; to make things even worse, they happened to exactly land in a puddle of mud.

The thick fluid instantly took the chance to drench their every feather, a dark, brownish hue tainted their plumages as the result.

Unlike Blu who didn't say anything at first, Jewel underwent an outburst of her choleric temperament. "Damn it!" she shouted so loudly that it almost frightened him. She rapidly jumped out of the puddle and rose her wings, but it was too late, they were both coated in a syrupy layer of mud.

"Oh man... I've been preening the whole morning, and now this." she wailed infuriated."

Blu got on his feet and quickly hopped towards her, he didn't care about his sludge-drenched plumage, only one certain thing worried him "Jewel is your wing okay?"

"I think so, apart from being soaked with this... shit."

"I-I'm sorry, I...I'll help you preen everything." Blu exhaled sharply in exasperation.

"Preening? Come on Blu, you're smart enough to see that preening this off us would keep us busy for days. And do you really want to preen this?" Jewel asked, raising up her mud-soaked wings to show them to Blu.

"Let me think..." she continued.

She briefly glared at the sky, and after thinking for a moment, a grin crept across her beak and she turned back to him.

"I know what we're gonna do, follow me." she almost yelled at him, and without even giving him time to answer, she jumped off the rock and departed away from him.

"W-Where are you going?" he called out, but didn't get an answer from the already distant Jewel.

Grudgingly, he flapped his wings and rose into the air, his muscles stinging once again thanks to the procedure.

Oh man, I need a break...


I'm sorry for this ending, but I didn't want to stretch this any longer.

The next chapter will take a while, but you can speed it up by reviewing, thanks!